★★★★★
THREE MONTHS AND THREE DAYS LATER
"babe that was ridiculously hot." daniel said, not taking his eyes off of zach. "i have tried, my whole life, to please you. to make you proud of me. but no matter what i did, you didn't care.
"it was never enough for you. nothing that i did was ever enough to make you happy. and i'm over it!
"i'm done trying to please you. i'm done with all of it. so you can leave now mother. we don't appreciate the company of those who don't accept us for who we are."
"and who's we?" "me." daniel spoke up, "we don't even know you." josh hissed at him, "and me." "jack.." myta spoke quietly.
"us too." corbyn spoke. "you are all ignorant, there is no such thing as gay." zach furiously got off the couch, keeping eye contact with myta.
"when will you get it through your head mother?! it is real. it is a thing. it exists!" his voice had raised, but not too much as he didn't want to frighten reese.
"you have to stop pushing it away. because the more you do the more you will lose me. soon enough i will be so far gone there will never be a chance to ever get me back."
"but you don't care, do you? you don't want me. you are probably waiting.. counting down the days until that happens."
zach sniffed. he tried so hard to hold back his tears. he did love his mother, how could he not? it's family. but they're hurting him by doing this.
"last time you were here, this ended with me in tears. this time, i won't cry. because if you never cared about me than i'm not really losing anything."
"you can't cry over losing something you never had." zach stated. "so leave. leave me alone like you always did."
with that, josh grabbed reese and ryan and they left. slamming the door behind them, "zach..." jack whispered.
"i won't cry. i can't." "zach it's okay to cry." jonah added, "i won't." he said quickly.
"i can't cry over the parents i never had." "baby.." "kristin and darrin stanford are my parents. they cared for me. they accepted me."
"the avery's are my family. not myta or josh herron." zach said. "zach they're still your parents."
"daniel i love you, but you have no idea. i know, you told me that your parents kicked you out but you still have no idea."
zach spun around to face him. rage fully taking over his mind.
"then explain it to me, help me to understand what you're feeling." "before you told your parents, were they ever around? did they pay attention to you?"
"yeah.." "mine didn't. they tossed me aside the minute ryan was born. even more so when reese came along. i love my siblings with everything in me, they did nothing wrong. it was all my parents."
"my mother would spend all day at the law firm, my father would spend every waking moment in his office. i was so alone."
"i couldn't look after myself yet, let alone two younger siblings, so sydnie would come over and watch us. jack would come to be with me while she watched over reese who was still a baby."
"sydnie would make us snacks, play with us, make crafts with us. all the things that a mother is supposed to do with their kids."
"kristin cooked us dinner, took us shopping. darrin taught me how to throw a football, how to play basketball. how to shave for god sakes!"
"darrin taught me to play a guitar. i spent so much time at jack's house i could barely call my own house my home."
"because it wasn't. that place was just a standing representation of how alone i felt. all the time i felt so alone."
"they never cared. they never tried to learn what i liked, who i was. i played basketball from grade seven to sophomore year, my parents never came to a game."
"but anything that reese or ryan did they were always there. front row, cheering them on."
"they shunned me, kept me separate from everything else. did you know i ran away once?"
"what?!" corbyn and jonah spoke in unison, surprised by the fact that zach did that.
"i didn't get far. i made it to portland-" "and you say you didn't get far?!" corbyn said shocked.
"i was actually trying to get to cape elizabeth. we have some family out there. i knew how to get there from portland so that's where i went.
"i would have succeeded, i knew my parents wouldn't look for me, but jack did. he and sydnie made the police send search parties."
"not even my own fucking family cared enough to know that i had ran! when i got back home, they didn't even notice i had left!"
"look i'm sorry for what you had to go through daniel, getting kicked out and everything, but you have no idea how alone i felt!"
daniel pushed himself off the couch and wrapped the smaller boy into his arms. "i'm so sorry baby." he whispered.